Title: Macarena for DummiesPrompt: MacarenaFandom: OriginalCharacters: Bernd, Amber, James, Cesare, Tino, Didi, JulioWord count: 869Rating: GSummary: Julio teaches his friends how to do the Macarena…Author’s notes: Thanks go out to my beta, Kat, for pinking this for me. Please also note that Amber and James belong to her. Author’s notes 2: “Macarena” was written by Romero Monge and Rafael Ruiz and recorded by Los del Río.

“What you wanna do?” Bernd asked as he reached for his beer. He was sitting out back with his friends, trying to fend off the boredom that was settling in. It was especially bad as he was coming out of one his depressed episodes and wanted to do something, anything, to lighten his mood.

James shrugged and drank his beer. “Dunno…” He looked over at Cesare.

He also shrugged. “You’ve got me.” He sipped his beer. “Seriously, I should be home studying for my accounting test.”

“It’s summer, Che, nobody studies then,” Tino said.

Cesare rolled his eyes at him. “I’m not a stupid art major like you with an easy-peasy class-load.”

“I can help you study if you want,” Didi said. “I took it last semester and got an ‘A’.”

“Didi, you get them in everything without even trying,” Bernd said.

Didi sighed. “That’s because I spend time studying. You’d do better too, if you did.”

Bernd shrugged. He had a hard enough time dealing with college as it was and now he had therapy on top of it, which tended to make him feel worse for several days afterwards. He briefly considered going once a week, but he desperately wanted to pass his “math for dummies” class, so he ignored his depression as much as he could. Doing things, like taking summer semester classes, helped, but they were also harder since everything was condensed and they needed to move quickly. The afternoons, when he was free, seemed to drag on into eternity.

“Let’s not fight, guys! It’s too nice a day for that,’ Julio said.

“Yeah!” Tino said.

“So what do you want to do?” Bernd said.

“We told you, we didn’t know,” Cesare said.

“I know what we could do.” Julio grinned.

His interest piqued, Bernd said, “What?” He sipped his beer.

“We could do the Macarena! I taught it to these old ladies last week,” Julio said. A good dancer, he quickly picked up enough moves here and there to get a summer job teaching dancing twice a week at the senior center in town. He was patient with them and they loved his Latin good looks.

“You’re kidding, right?” Cesare said.

“No….”Julio frowned. “It’ll be fun, you’ll see, but if you don’t want to do, it’s okay.”

“I want to do it!” Tino stood up.

“That’s the spirit! What about you, James? Bernd? Didi?” Julio stood there with his hands on his hips.

Didi shrugged. “Okay.” He stood up.

James sighed and finished his beer. “Fine.” He said as he stood up.

Bernd looked around. Just about everyone was standing up, except for himself and Cesare. He stood up, hoping it would make him forget about being sad.

“Fine!!” Cesare say. He stood up as well.

“Okay, I want you all to kind of stand where you can see me. I’m going to play the song and I’m going to warn you now, it’s a powerful earworm. You guys will be singing all day now!” Julio grinned. He fished his iPod out of his back pocket and turned it on. He fiddled with it for a few minutes, while he looked for the song. When he found it, he hit play. “Just listen to it for now and move to the beat.” He turned up the volume and moved his body to the beat.

James looked at Bernd and back at Julio. He whistled.

Bernd laughed and joined in with some catcalls.

“Be serious, you two!” Julio smiled. “Everyone got it?”

“Yeah!!”

“Okay, I’m going to play it again and then I’ll teach you how to do it.” Julio played it again. “It goes like this…” Julio moved his hands and shook his hips. “That’s it, Tino. Good, Bernd. Nice moves, James. I knew you could do it, Cesare! Bend your knees, Didi, that’s it! Now shake it! Dale a tu cuerpo alegria Macarena… Que tu cuerpo es pa' darle alegria y cosa buena… Dale a tu cuerpo alegria, Macarena… Hey, Macarena!!” he sang. “Let’s do it again,” Julio said to his friends. He had them keep at it, until they were able to do it. Not that anyone minded as Julio made it fun.

An hour later, Amber came back from the library. She walked around the back of Bernd’s house, drawn by the sound of the guys trying to sing along as they danced. She stood there, watching them shaking their butts. She laughed. “What are you dumbasses doing?”

“The Macarena. Why? You want to join us?” Julio asked.

“It’s fun, Amber,” Bernd said.

“Uh… no thanks.” Amber chuckled as she went inside. I have better things to do than dance around, looking stupid… But if it makes you happy, Bernd, then all’s good…